News & Updates
Welcome to our blog
Find out what we’ve been working on, how you can get involved, and more.
How can Opus approach AI wisely and with intent? Some ideas (and an invitation)
Late last year here at Opus, we came to the conclusion that we need to open up an intentional space for co-learning around AI technologies and what they mean for a system change organisation like us.
What we've been learning from: March 2026
Here's our regular round-up of some of the most interesting and thought-provoking things our team have been reading, watching and listening to over the past month.
A history of Now Then since 2008, part two: A home for Sheffield’s independents
Our Sheffield-based community media platform, Now Then, recently announced long-awaited plans to return to print later this year. Here on the Opus Blog, we thought we’d look back at the history of the magazine with two of the people who were there from the start (or near enough): magazine editor-in-chief Sam Walby and long-time Opus director and writer Sara Hill.
Illustrating the Story Commons lesson cards
When the People’s Newsroom were planning the Story Commons series, we knew we wanted accompanying visuals that could help express some of the parts of this work that are hard to put into words. Charlotte Bailey was part of the cohort who helped us develop the lessons, and also worked with us to illustrate the series. She describes her process and some stories behind the illustration below.
A history of Now Then since 2008, part one: creating a magazine for Sheffield
Our Sheffield-based community media platform, Now Then, recently announced long-awaited plans to return to print later this year. Here on the Opus Blog, we thought we’d look back at the history of the magazine with two of the people who were there from the start (or near enough): magazine editor-in-chief Sam Walby and long-time Opus director and writer Sara Hill.
What I've learned from two weeks working at Now Then
I've spent the last two weeks with Now Then Magazine and have loved being a part of their team, getting out and about reporting in Sheffield.
What we've been learning from: February 2026
Here's our regular round-up of some of the most interesting and thought-provoking things our team have been reading, watching and listening to over the past month.
Lessons for a Story Commons: how storytelling can open the door to thriving futures
For the past two years here at the People’s Newsroom, we’ve been exploring how changing the way we tell stories can be key to changing the future itself. This work is centred on the belief that collective storytelling, and the connection it facilitates, is essential to the transformational changes our societies need.
In a story commons, we collaborate to regenerate
The work of the People’s Newsroom centres on the hope that we can imagine, develop and steward a Story Commons which will help us tell deeper, more systemic and ultimately more valuable stories. These stories would reflect and enable our essential interconnectedness and our innate need for connection, solidarity and collective action.
In a story commons, we envision new economies
What could a different relationship between storytelling and economics look like?
In a story commons, we reimagine accountability and care
Accountability is a discipline. It is not a fixed destination.
In a story commons, we inspire creativity
The stories we tell about the world are not separate from culture – they both shape and are our culture.
This may seem self-evident but this truth is not systematically acknowledged within some of our most influential storytelling spaces: newsrooms.
In a story commons, we explore what was, what is and what could be
The People’s Newsroom has been exploring how storytelling can support transitions away from extractive economies and towards regenerative and life-giving ones. A theme that came up in our learning together was the importance of stories about emerging futures being located in specific places, histories and communities.
In a story commons, the process is the purpose
As individuals, communities or organisations, we are constantly assigning – or perhaps more often, assigned – value. We are weighed and measured every second, every hour, every day, in almost all our interactions.
Where the old maps and mandates fail: civic work in the spaces between
When we look at complex problems, they often fall outside any one remit – but if we're to overcome them, that needs to change.
Reflections on the criminal invasion of Venezuela
The United States’ illegal incursion into Venezuela, universally regarded by legal scholars as a crime under international law, is the latest and most full-throated assertion of a return to colonial logics, as the old liberal-democratic order continues its precipitous collapse.
What we've been learning from: December 2025
Here's our regular round-up of some of the most interesting and thought-provoking things our team have been reading, watching and listening to over the past month.
Where should systems change organisations keep their money?
At Opus, we’re in the process of changing where we keep our company savings to better balance ethics, risk and the current financial landscape. Team member Sam Gregory spoke to colleague Bashkim Muca about the thinking behind the switch, and what learning we can offer to other organisations dedicated to social change.
Opus team statement on the ban of Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws
After their protest at RAF Brize Norton, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced plans to designate direct action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. Palestine Action sprayed paint on military jet engines as a protest against the UK’s complicity in Israel’s genocide. This is not terrorism.
Photo credit: John Slater